New Pentagon Office Criticized as Effort to Control UFO
Investigations, End Transparency
"American officials and analysts globally are raising alarm about a new Defense
Department office that will handle the U.S. government’s examination of unidentified
flying objects, warning that the move indicates the military wants to end a brief spell of
transparency and shove UFO reports back into a closet under lock and key.
The Pentagon quietly announced the Tuesday night before Thanksgiving that it had
formed the esoteric-sounding Airborne Object Identification and Management
Synchronization Group. Working with the intelligence agencies, it serves as the follow-
on to a government-wide effort earlier this year to document and analyze reports of
encounters with unidentified objects – “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena” or UAPs in
Pentagon jargon – predominantly from military pilots.
The new office, which reports to the undersecretary of defense for Intelligence and
Security, will now oversee the entire government’s study of UFOs, focusing on sightings
within restricted military airspace and will also “assess and mitigate any associated
threats to safety of flight and national security,” a spokeswoman says.
The Defense Department has since justified the composition of the office as necessary
to provide uniformity to the reporting process and subsequent analysis.
But some researchers characterize the Pentagon’s latest move as an “insulting”
attempt to run around specific efforts by civilian organizations and leaders in Congress
to exercise greater oversight over the government’s study of UFOs.
“It represents a brazen step towards completely stifling the burgeoning demand from
both the public and Congress for increased UFO transparency,” says Peter Whitley, a
researcher based in Japan and a member of the Mutual UFO Network, or MUFON,
which considers itself one of the largest and oldest of its kind. “Clearly, the DOD is
attempting to reverse course on this trend and shut the door on further disclosure of
any kind.”
See:
https://www.usnews.com/news/national...d-transparency